rathole

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a burrow, entrance, or hole made or used by a rat

   The terrier waited beside the rathole in the barn wall.

2. 2
   noun

   informal: a cramped, dirty, unpleasant room or passage

   The basement apartment was a damp little rathole.

3. 3
   noun

   informal: a seemingly bottomless waste of money or other resources

   The abandoned project became a rathole for public funds.

A compound of rat + hole. The literal burrow or gnawed opening produced figurative uses for a cramped, filthy place and for something that consumes money or resources as if they vanished into an unfillable hole.

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